Tuesday, April 23, 2013

April Chapter Meeting Wrap-up

Local Elections:

This month's meeting was full of useful information for voters in Frederick County. We have some elections coming up this year in the City of Frederick that could change our local government for the better:

City Mayor & Aldermen: Primary 9/10/13 | General 11/5/2013

If you want a healthier county, you have to get involved! Conveniently for you, liberty minded individuals can have a big impact with minimal effort thanks to low voter turnouts and the foothold that liberty already has here. Candidates have missed victory by as little as one tenth of one percent! All it takes is a little Google work to find out who is running and what they stand for.

8th Amendment:

Clint filled everyone in on the 8th Amendment, which protects the rights of the people (that's everyone, mind you) against excessive bail and fines, and cruel and unusual punishment. We have English nobles, the Virginia delegation to the constitutional convention, and an unfortunate fellow named Titus Oates to thank for these specific protections. The nobles got the ball rolling with the writing of the Magna Carta in 1215, poor Titus (not that he was innocent, but still) was sentenced to a punishment so controversial that it brought the subject of "cruel and unusual" to the public eye, and the Virginia delegation made sure all the lessons humanity had learned about the subject were included in the Bill of Rights.